Community Wildfire Protection Plan For Lake County, Montana January, 2005 Prepared For: Prepared By: Lake County, Montana Arctos Research Jeff Reistroffer, Project Mgr. In Cooperation With P.O. Box 728 Northwest Regional RC&D, Plains, MT 59859 Montana Department of Commerce, and Tel. (406) 826-5171 U.S. Forest Service, National Fire Plan [email protected] LAKE COUNTY COMMUNITY WILDFIRE PROTECTION PLAN TABLE OF CONTENTS CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION ..................................................................................................1 1.1 PURPOSE..........................................................................................................................1 1.2 GOALS...............................................................................................................................3 1.3 PLAN STRUCTURE...........................................................................................................4 1.4 PLANNING PROCESS......................................................................................................4 CHAPTER 2: LAKE COUNTY CHARACTERISTICS ..............................................................10 2.1 POPULATION ..................................................................................................................10 2.2 LAKE COUNTY COMMUNITIES .....................................................................................10 2.3 LAND COVER..................................................................................................................11 2.4 LAND OWNERSHIP ........................................................................................................12 2.5 WATER RESOURCES....................................................................................................12 2.6 ECONOMY.......................................................................................................................13 2.7 CULTURAL RESOURCES..............................................................................................15 CHAPTER 3: WILDLAND FIRE MANAGEMENT ORGANIZATION..........................................16 3.1 WILDLAND FIRE AGENCIES..........................................................................................16 3.2 LAKE COUNTY ORGANIZATIONS .................................................................................18 CHAPTER 4: FOREST CONDITIONS AND FIRE ENVIRONMENT .......................................22 4.1 HISTORICAL FIRE REGIMES.........................................................................................22 4.2 FOREST TYPES IN LAKE COUNTY...............................................................................23 4.3 FIRE HISTORY ................................................................................................................28 CHAPTER 5: WILDFIRE RISK ASSESSMENT.........................................................................29 5.1 IDENTIFYING THE WILDFIRE PROBLEM IN LAKE COUNTY.......................................29 5.2 RISK ASSESSMENT PROCESS.....................................................................................30 5.3 IDENTIFYING PLANNING AREAS..................................................................................31 5.4 IDENTIFYING WORK UNITS ..........................................................................................32 5.5 RISK RATING METHODOLOGY.....................................................................................33 5.6 PLANNING AREA RISK ASSESSMENTS.......................................................................37 CHAPTER 6: MITIGATION.......................................................................................................49 6.1 MITIGATION PLANNING PROCESS ..............................................................................49 6.2 MITIGATION STRATEGIES ............................................................................................53 6.3 FUNDING.........................................................................................................................57 CHAPTER 7: MONITORING AND EVALUATION .....................................................................58 7.1 ANNUAL OPERATING PLAN OUTLINE ........................................................................58 APPENDIX A - MAPS ................................................................................................................59 APPENDIX B: SAMPLE HOMEOWNER MATERIALS...........................................................69 APPENDIX C – ANNUAL OPERATING PLANS.......................................................................79 Lake County Community Wildfire Protection Plan -Page - i CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 1.1 PURPOSE The purpose of this Community Fire Protection Plan is to help make Lake County residents, communities, and businesses less vulnerable to the adverse effects of wildland fires. This will be accomplished by identifying the wildfire problem in the County, assessing the level of risk to people, property and natural resources, and developing a collaborative approach to mitigation programs through federal, tribal, state, and local planning efforts. This Community Fire Protection Plan is intended to establish a starting point for a continuing and open-ended community protection program relying on a concerted effort between fire protection agencies and the residents of Lake County. Additionally, this fire plan is intended to assist emergency response personnel and landowners in identifying and mitigating wildland fire hazards on public and private land, and to work cooperatively in developing mitigation options to reduce the impact of a wildland fire. This Plan has been prepared in compliance with: • The National Fire Plan; A Collaborative Approach for Reducing Wildland Fire Risks to Communities and the Environment 10-Year Comprehensive Strategy Implementation Plan– May 2002. • The Federal Emergency Management Agency’s Region 10 guidelines for a Local Hazard Mitigation Plan as defined in 44 CFR parts 201 and 206, and as related to a fire mitigation plan chapter of a Natural Hazards Mitigation Plan. This plan will be attached as an annex to the Lake County Pre-Disaster Mitigation Plan. The objective of combining these two complimentary guidelines is to facilitate an integrated wildland fire risk assessment, identify pre-disaster hazard mitigation activities, and prioritize efforts to enhance the protection of people, structures, the environment, and significant infrastructure in Lake County. Among the primary guiding principals in preparing this plan are: 1. Priority setting that emphasizes the protection of communities and other high-priority values at-risk. 2. Collaboration among government agencies and the citizens of the County. 3. Ensuring successful implementation through the establishment of a dynamic and continuing planning process. NATIONAL FIRE PLAN This Wildland-Urban Interface Fire Mitigation Plan documents the County’s intentions in meeting the National Fire Plan’s 10-Year Comprehensive Strategy. The projects and activities recommended under this plan are in addition to other Federal, state, and private / corporate forest and rangeland management activities. The implementation plan does not alter, diminish, or expand the existing jurisdiction, statutory and regulatory responsibilities and authorities or budget processes of participating Federal, State, and tribal agencies. Lake County Community Wildfire Protection Plan Page- - 1 By endorsing this implementation plan, all signed parties agree that reducing the threat of wildland fire to people, communities, and ecosystems will require: • Firefighter and public safety continuing as the highest priority. • A sustained, long-term and cost-effective investment of resources by all public and private parties, recognizing overall budget parameters affecting Federal, State, Tribal, and local governments. • A unified effort to implement the collaborative framework called for in the Strategy in a manner that ensures timely decisions at each level. • Accountability for measuring and monitoring performance and outcomes, and a commitment to factoring findings into future decision making activities. • The achievement of national goals through action at the local level with particular attention on the unique needs of cross-boundary efforts and the importance of funding on-the-ground activities. • Communities and individuals in the wildland-urban interface to initiate personal stewardship and volunteer actions that will reduce wildland fire risks. • Management activities, both in the wildland-urban interface and in at-risk areas across the broader landscape. • Active forestland and rangeland management, including thinning that produces commercial or pre-commercial products, biomass removal and utilization, prescribed fire and other fuels reduction tools to simultaneously meet long-term ecological, economic, and community objectives. The National Fire Plan identifies a three-tiered organization structure including 1) the local level, 2) state/regional and tribal level, and 3) the national level. This plan adheres to the collaboration and outcomes consistent with a local level plan. Local level collaboration involves participants with direct responsibility for management decisions affecting public and/or private land and resources, fire protection responsibilities, or good working knowledge and interest in local resources. Participants in this planning process include Tribal representatives, local representatives